Happy Groundhog Day: Here are 10 things I don't want to see again in 2018

Tradition is one thing. Stale, predictable and boring are quite another.

Instead of the same ol’, same ol’ Groundhog routine, here are 10 things I hope we don’t see again in 2018.

1. Quarterbacks injured

We don’t want to see anybody injured — even holders — but almost half of the SEC starting quarterbacks missed considerable parts of 2017 because of injuries: Jacob Eason, Austin Allen, Luke Del Rio, Shea Patterson, Nick Fitzgerald and Nick Starkel. The backups, for the most part, played admirably and a couple played spectacularly. But that’s no way to lose your job (or keep a head coach). Here’s hoping the OLs keep the QB1s upright and clean in 2018.

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

2. Multiple coaches fired

It’s unrealistic to expect the SEC to go an entire year without firing anybody, but maybe we can stick to one or two coaching changes in 2018 instead of six again?

3. Trash cans on sidelines

I think it’s a pretty safe bet we won’t see that again in 2018 … or ever.

You know it’s going to happen again in 2018. Just don’t let it happen to you.

5. Losing record in bowl games

Critics hammered the top-heavy SEC all season. It’s all good. Critics also watched two SEC teams win their Playoff semifinal and play for the national title. Championship confetti fell on an SEC team for the ninth time in past 12 years.

But the rest of the league needs to pick it up a notch. The SEC went 2-5 in bowl games that didn’t involve Alabama or Georgia. Frankly, that’s a little Big Ten-ish.

6. GameDay’s Big Ten bias

Kirk Herbstreit walked off the set after Alabama was announced as the final team in the Playoff. My reaction? That’s a start … keep walking. GameDay, which started as a really cool, fun, thorough way to kick off Saturdays, has morphed into an unwatchable Big Ten love-fest. We already have a Big Ten Network. We don’t need another. I think Herbstreit is very good on most things, particularly as a color analyst. But it’s increasingly difficult to take him or Joey Galloway seriously any time either starts talking about the Big Ten or SEC, most obviously when it involves their beloved Ohio State.

7. Florida and Tennessee at the bottom of the SEC in scoring

The Gators scored 243 points last season. Steve Spurrier scored that many before Halloween most years. Tennessee couldn’t even do that, and the Vols had one more game than the Gators, too.

Tennessee’s scoring dropped almost 50 percent in one year, from 473 points to 238. But y’all keep insisting that Josh Dobbs wasn’t any good. The Gators will be better in 2018. I’m not nearly as convinced about the Vols.

Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

8. Another low-scoring Alabama-LSU game

Come on, Tigers. You have more athletes than anybody. Other teams score 30 on Alabama. The more creative ones reach 40. And those teams still don’t put as many offensive skill players in the NFL as you do.

I’m over the defensive draws. The last time Alabama and LSU both reached 20 points was 2010 — a 24-21 LSU victory.

The only time both reached 30? In 2007, the original Saban Bowl, which LSU won 41-34 in the highest scoring game in series history.

9. UCF

What was a cute marketing ploy to celebrate a sensational season quickly grew annoying and out of control. I get it. Since Day 1 of the Playoff era, I’ve campaigned for 8 teams. The 4-team math never worked and there is no way two Power 5 champions are staying home to make room for a Group of 5 team. No way. Never. So I applaud UCF for bringing attention to the mid-majors’ plight. They don’t have access to the Playoff, never will, and it’s blatantly unfair.

But enough, already. You didn’t win anything other than an AAC title and Peach Bowl.

Last week I saw something about the Knights also bringing back their “Heisman finalist quarterback.”

That’s made up, too. McKenzie Milton finished eighth in Heisman voting. He was fantastic, but he was not one of the three Heisman finalists.

It’s hard to tell fact from fiction any more regarding the Knights.

Wonder if that applies to students, too? Is everybody now on the Dean’s list?

10. Kentucky losing to Florida

Oh, who am I kidding. Nothing screams Groundhog Day more than this one-sided streak, which reached 31 last year in the craziest way imaginable.

An award-winning editor with previous stints at the Miami Herald, The Indianapolis Star and News & Observer, Chris Wright oversees editorial operations for Saturday Down South.

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Comments Section (Hot Takes Welcome!)

Bowl games are dying. You combine the kick off neutral site game fad, playoff games (soon to be expanded), and the fact that so many NFL bound guys sit them out…they are getting worse to watch every year. I get that they are fun for the players, but the fans drive the revenue and desire…and it’s drying up.

There is no actual talk we know of to say the playoffs are expanding. Many bowl games are just made for TV events and the sponsors seem good with that. The SEC got smacked around this past season and people still judge conferences by them. None of them are dying or going away. The players that sit them out have every right to do so. As a fan, I’m fine with that. It gives us a chance to see some of the guys that will be on the field the following season.

I think the best way to save bowl season is to possibly shorten the regular season by getting rid of 1 or 2 cupcake non conference games and then have like a 16 team tournament for the championship and if you don’t make that tournament there are other tournaments similar to the NIT. You could even have a tournament just for the non power 5 schools so they could be the ‘Group of 5 National Champion” and have a little parade and feel special.

I just think the issue is too many bowl games. It’s WAY too easy to make a bowl. Used to be that a 6-6 team was lucky to get an invite. Now it’s all but guaranteed, and a few 5-7 teams make it in nowadays too. Bowls are supposed to be these big hyped games between good teams, but no one cares about watching two 6-6 teams play each other.

And why are 6-6 and some 5-7 teams making bowls? Because there are too many bowl games!!! Limit the number of bowls and the quality of teams that get in and there will be more fan interest.

Kentucky doesn’t have a problem with NFL bound guys sitting out.
And if it wasn’t for bowls, schools like ours would only have our wins over OVC schools to award bonuses for getting to that seventh win.

Unless we have an issue related to cause, I don’t see much of a coaching change happening during or after this season. The coaches in place are too new, too good, or just signed or will be signing extensions. Orgeron may actually be the guy with the most to lose this season.

I get that Wright wasn’t trying to write War and Peace about the SEC, but he sure had no feelings for the bloodbath that Alabama vs LSU has become in the past decade. Not a lot of teams get the undivided attention these 2 teams give each other. From the shared bye week to the Saban Bowl to the Natty, this rivalry went nuclear years ago. If any team got the best punch both these teams can throw, it would be low scoring as a series.

Bowls, historically, have been nothing more than an exhibition games (watch some oldies on early morning ESPN sometime). The recent media can pump hype into them to get ratings and clicks, but that’s all they are. Games are what the players and coaches make them, in this case, very little. The only exception would be the CFP and the NY-6 games, because the players and coaches care.

I take a back seat to no one when it comes to SEC pride. But I’m ok with the UCF thing. They went undefeated and they beat the team that beat BOTH of the finalists. Under the very old poll system, they might well have been declared National Champions by the AP Poll or the Coach’s Poll. Let them have their fun. They earned it.

Going undefeated isn’t a sufficient criteria by itself to be crowned “national champion”. This is because its easy to schedule almost entirely cupcakes for a season and then run the table. Which is exactly what UCF did.

Bowl games are fun, and it’s always a pleasure seeing conferences go against one another. People can skip the meaningless bowls if they want, but I always enjoy watching 7-9 win teams playing against one another.